Notes from the message at Harvest Bible Chapel Spring Lake on August 12, 2012
Scripture: Numbers 11:4-35 (The Israelites are on their way to the promised land and on the cusp of receiving the promise)
"We (the church and our country) are drowning in a sea of covetousness (craving)."
The US debt is approaching sixteen trillion dollars
The US budget this year has income of 2.37 trillion
The US spending is 3.6 trillion, adding to our debt 1.27 trillion
Put into context - if you had a job with income of $25k per year and spending of $37k per year and you went to a financial counselor, what do you think they'd tell you?
Each citizen of the US is in debt $50,700. (National debt.)
Personal debt is almost exactly equal to that.
School loans and credit cards (without mortgage debt) add up to $5,500 per citizen, averaged out.
From Numbers 11, God hates covetousness/craving.
The problem is yielding to craving.
Numbers 11:4-6, the Israelites were craving the foods they had back in Egypt.
When we yield to craving, it becomes sin. God hates it. v.10..."The anger of the Lord blazed hotly."
Craving in and of itself is not sin. We are wired to crave things. There is a universal longing within each heart that says, there has got to be more, there has got to be a better way. There is more to this life than what I know and what I am experiencing. This is a universal craving. It's not wrong.
It becomes sin, when we look to satisfy it in the wrong places.
In this account in Numbers 11, what is striking is what is going on when the Israelites yield to craving. God is leading and providing for them and they take their eyes off of God and crave for what they had in Egypt.
Covetousness, craving, becomes sin, when we yield.
Problems that occur when we submit to craving and when we yield:
- dwelling on the desire inflates the pleasure.
- reduces our capacity to enjoy God's provision
When does wanting something become the sin of craving something?
When you set your mind on it. You have to have it. When that desire eclipses your desire for God.
Romans 8:5,6 - "For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace."
The sin happens not when we commit the deed, but prior to that, when we set our minds on the thing that we desire, whether or not we commit the deed.
Problem 3, others are listening.
Your craving for things other than God is not without consequence. It affects the people around you and destroys your testimony. In the case of the Israelites, it affected Moses, demoralizing him - see verse 11.
Verses 11-17, God helps Moses by having him set up elders (70) to bear the burden of the people with Moses.
God's solution to the craving - a gift you don't want.
In the case of the Israelites, because they craved meat more than God, because they rejected God, He tells them He will give them so much meat, it will come out of their nostrils. v. 20
Beware of begging God for non-essentials.
What are you chasing God for? It may or may not be wrong, but you've elevated its importance above God.
Craving for something more than God is like trying to scale a mountain, thinking when we get to the top, we'll be happy. It is a miserable way to live life. What's worse is when God gives you the desire and you find that you are still lacking...
What does the craver look like?
It's the college student who only is there to find someone to marry. They want to get married. That is all they desire - they want to get married, they want that person. They find someone, take them home, and others see that it is the wrong person, but the craver is blind to it. They can't see beyond the craving that has become their consuming passion. They marry and end up in a train wreck.
It's the person who all they want is success or riches in life.
Psalm 106:13-15
"They quickly forgot His works;
They did not wait for His counsel,
But craved intensely in the wilderness,
And tempted God in the desert.
So He gave them their request,
But sent a wasting disease among them."
The problem - yielding to craving.
God's solution is a gift you don't want.
The conclusion to craving - emptiness.
THE CALL IS TO PUT OFF CRAVING
If you don't deal with this wilderness attitude, you will spend the rest of your life in the wilderness. People's lives who are ear-marked by craving will spend a life time in the wilderness.
The ATTITUDE to put off is craving. The Old Testament passage tells us what we need to put off - craving. A New Testament passage tells us what to put on in its place...
1 Timothy 6:6-10
v.6 "But godliness is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. "
PUT ON CONTENTMENT
Contentment is being satisfied with God's provision.
Contentment is not laziness. A lack of craving is not a sign of spiritual maturity.
Contentment has a partner - godliness.
WE ARE NEVER COMMANDED IN SCRIPTURE TO BE CONTENT WITH WHO WE ARE. WE ARE COMMANDED IN SCRIPTURE TO BE CONTENT WITH WHAT WE HAVE.
Godliness + contentment = great gain (Having God and being content, we gain greatly.)
It's a universal truth. It is always true.
False equations:
Godliness + prosperity = great gain (If I had God and I was rich, then I'd have it all together.)
Godliness + poverty = great gain (Having God and divesting myself of all my stuff, then I'd have it all together.)
The issue is not stuff but does your stuff have you.
Our things have been given to us and we are stewards over it. Things have been entrusted to us, to accomplish God's purposes. View it this way. We are stewards.
More false equations:
Godliness + family harmony = great gain (If I have God and the perfect family, I will be happy.) Reality check - we will never have the perfect family. Our children will make sure of it. We subtly can move from godliness being the priority to having the perfect family being the priority.
Godliness + success = great gain
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Godliness + contentment = great gain
Great gain is to take godliness and put that first, put God first in your life, be content with what He's provided - that opens the door to great gain.
THREE KEYS TO CONTENTMENT from 1 Tim. 6:6-10
v. 7 "For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of the world."
1. Look to eternity -
- create an eternal focus
- thoughts about eternity promote contentment on earth
v. 8 "If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content."
Money and possessions are like sea water. The more you drink, the more thirsty you get.
If we are not content with what we have, we will not be satisfied if it were doubled.
2. Let enough be enough -
- learn to say we have enough
- don't let your income determine your lifestyle
- let your lifestyle be determined by what God is calling you to do
- let the income on the too much side, go...
3. Be warned -
v. 9-10 "But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."
- The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil
- Riches can grab our hearts and squeeze out the capacity to desire God
- We shoot ourselves by chasing after that which is not God
- Possessions are usually diminished by possession
- With money comes amplified temptation
Henry Ford said he was happier as a boy working in a mechanics shop...
Ask these questions...
- Am I a content person?
- If I am honest with myself, do I spend more time thinking about people to impact or things to get?
- Have I convinced myself that a little more will make me happy?
- Do I think more relationship(s) will make me happy?
- Do I think more sex will make me happy?
- Do I think more friends will make me happy?
- As I look to my future, am I focused on the things I will get, the things I get to do, the places I get to go, or people that I can influence?
The call is to repent...confess the sin...put off the craving...put on contentment...
The source of true joy is relationship with Jesus Christ.
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